KAREN BRAILSFORD
  • Home
  • I am
  • Praise
  • Inspire
    • Dalai Lama Global Vision Summit (talk + guided meditation)
    • Inner Visions >
      • An Appreciation
      • Forward
      • Life As We Know It And See It
      • Precipice and Presence
      • Sentient and Prescient
      • The I Am of Resonance
      • The Glass Is Always Full
      • You Will Know
    • Sacred Landscapes (excerpts) >
      • Spiraling
      • Sacred Landscapes of the Soul
      • Go Directly to Jubilee
      • Bring the Party
      • A Life Is God Writ Large
      • Soot into Soil
      • In the Here and Now
      • Creation Story
      • In This Skin
    • Still I Rise by Maya Angelou (recitation)
    • Go Directly to Jubilee! (talk)
    • God's Love Keeps Lifting Us Higher and Higher (talk)
    • Paintings
  • Book Agenting
    • Aevitas Creative Management
    • Writer's Digest
    • His Name Is George Floyd
    • Kamala's Way
  • Write Volumes
    • Short Stories >
      • It Takes All Kinds
      • All is Nothing
      • Ever After
      • Dinner Parties
      • Shades of Love
    • Essays >
      • Floating Like Butterflies
      • Mommy, Still
    • Poems >
      • Covid: Covert No More
      • Harriet and Me
  • Media
    • Download Kit
    • Articles and books >
      • Unity >
        • Rising in Joy
        • Blessed by a Dress
        • This Is How You Pray
        • For A Reason, for a Season, or for a Lifetime
      • People: Voices From the Fight Against Racism
    • Podcasts, radio and video >
      • The Peace Studio Summit 2021
      • The Jenny McCarthy Show
      • In the Flow With Rev. Skip
      • Waking Up in Daily Life
      • The Only One in the Room
      • Bridges & Blessings with Rev. Julie
    • Press
  • Blog
  • Connect

​




                              ​          

Hi, My name is Karen. And I'm Black. (No, Not That One.)

6/24/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
©ABC Karen Black in "Trilogy of Terror" terrified me as a child. But not as much as Racist White Karen.

​I was just as outraged as the rest of the world when I first saw the video of Amy Cooper wielding her white privilege in Central Park, her shrieks penetrating like a sword in an ultimately futile attempt to cut down Christian Cooper (no relation). One month later, the video is now at 45 million views. ​

​In fact, I was so very outraged I consciously chose to ignore the slight inflicted by Christian’s sister, Melody, in her tweet that circled the globe. ​
At the time of the incident, Amy’s name was of course unknown so Melody dubbed her what every obnoxious white woman has been called as of late—Karen. 

Meeting someone named Karen was once a moment of solidarity for me. White. Black. Asian. Didn’t matter. “There’s always three of us,” I would quip at parties. No longer.

Months ago my siblings, who have more exotic names than plain Karen (OK “Sean” isn’t exotic in Dublin but in our South Bronx school he was sometimes called "Seen") began texting me memes of the horrible things “Karen” had done or said. 
​
What fresh hell is this? I mean, why Karen? Some of my best friends over the years have been named Karen. Why not Jane or Carol or Alice? Or Hillary. Fine. Maybe she’s been pilloried enough!

Final straw: Just last week my brother sent a video of a woman raging (of course!) in a store. I have to admit it’s pretty hilarious. "Karen forgot her meds” read the tweet. 

I am now the member of another oppressed group: I am African-American, left-handed and a woman—and my name is Karen.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Intuitive creator.

    I like to make stuff...and think about stuff. 

    Archives

    October 2021
    July 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    January 2021
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020

    Categories

    All
    Agape International Spiritual Center
    Art
    Books
    Celebrities
    Contemplation
    Coping
    Coronavirus
    Crisis
    Dalai Lama
    Death
    Education
    Family
    Film
    God
    Grief
    Inner Awareness
    Inner Guidance
    Jesus
    Loss
    Love
    Memoir
    Metaphysics
    Mothers
    Muhammad
    Music
    Painting
    Pandemic
    Politics
    Race
    Relationships
    Religion
    Rumi
    Self-help
    Self-love
    Shades-of-transition-and-transformation
    Spiritual Guidance
    Spirituality
    Spiritual Principles
    Stress
    Synchronicity
    Television
    Transformation
    Transition
    Write Volumes

Picture
© ​Karen Brailsford 2020-2022
​
  • Home
  • I am
  • Praise
  • Inspire
    • Dalai Lama Global Vision Summit (talk + guided meditation)
    • Inner Visions >
      • An Appreciation
      • Forward
      • Life As We Know It And See It
      • Precipice and Presence
      • Sentient and Prescient
      • The I Am of Resonance
      • The Glass Is Always Full
      • You Will Know
    • Sacred Landscapes (excerpts) >
      • Spiraling
      • Sacred Landscapes of the Soul
      • Go Directly to Jubilee
      • Bring the Party
      • A Life Is God Writ Large
      • Soot into Soil
      • In the Here and Now
      • Creation Story
      • In This Skin
    • Still I Rise by Maya Angelou (recitation)
    • Go Directly to Jubilee! (talk)
    • God's Love Keeps Lifting Us Higher and Higher (talk)
    • Paintings
  • Book Agenting
    • Aevitas Creative Management
    • Writer's Digest
    • His Name Is George Floyd
    • Kamala's Way
  • Write Volumes
    • Short Stories >
      • It Takes All Kinds
      • All is Nothing
      • Ever After
      • Dinner Parties
      • Shades of Love
    • Essays >
      • Floating Like Butterflies
      • Mommy, Still
    • Poems >
      • Covid: Covert No More
      • Harriet and Me
  • Media
    • Download Kit
    • Articles and books >
      • Unity >
        • Rising in Joy
        • Blessed by a Dress
        • This Is How You Pray
        • For A Reason, for a Season, or for a Lifetime
      • People: Voices From the Fight Against Racism
    • Podcasts, radio and video >
      • The Peace Studio Summit 2021
      • The Jenny McCarthy Show
      • In the Flow With Rev. Skip
      • Waking Up in Daily Life
      • The Only One in the Room
      • Bridges & Blessings with Rev. Julie
    • Press
  • Blog
  • Connect